Mahesh Brijpaul, a 25-year-old machine operator of Lot 14 Gour Persaud Avenue, Number 79 Village Corriverton, was allegedly shot by Police and remains a patient in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the New Amsterdam Hospital.
Days have passed, and the Police have not issued a release on the shooting incident; and despite efforts made to get information, the officials remain tightlipped.
Injured: Mahesh Brijpaul
The shooting incident reportedly occurred on March 7 during an intelligence-led operation at Line Path Corriverton.
Eyewitnesses told Guyana Times that the young man had purchased a beer from a bar, and sitting outside when he was approached by another man, who told him that he had a package for him. Brijpaul refused to accept it, claiming that he had no package to collect.
Police have since claimed that a wrapped package suspected to be cannabis was found at the scene.
Soon after, gunshots were heard. Upon checking, Brijpaul was seen lying on the roadway with a suspected gunshot wound. He was taken to the Skeldon Hospital, and was later transferred to the New Amsterdam Hospital.
Ashley, the injured man’s sister, posited that the Police have not provided much information to the family.
“As soon as we heard, we hurry and get ready to go to the hospital; and when we reach, we see them pushing him to go for X-rays. A Police (rank) was there, and when we ask him what happen, he say that there was a shootout. He said my brother fired the first shot, and then they returned fire.”
She has said that even if that were the case, the Police have not found the firearm Brijpaul allegedly had in his possession.
The bullet reportedly hit Brijpaul in his back and damaged his intestines. Doctors were able to successfully remove the bullet, but were forced to also remove parts of his intestine during the five-hour-long surgery.
His mother Venita Dindyal has stated that her son is shackled to a bed in the Intensive Care Unit.
She recalled her son telling her that he was at the bar and was approached by a friend, and after the conversation the friend left, and then a car drove up and the men inside told him not to move, and that they were the Police.
“He tell me that none of them look like Police because none of them had on uniform. So he start to walk away, and then he feel like a bullet fly past his ears and he start to run, and then he get shoot in his back. He say when he fall down the Police come and start kicking him in his face and stomach…”
Dindyal explained that her son claimed he was placed into the back of a canter and taken to the hospital after another beating.
“We just want to know what happened. We are not defending him. We don’t know what the circumstances were, we just want to know what happened and why,” the crying mother has stated.
